Usage of the Prototype Digital Petroleum Atlas

Since the Digital Petroleum Atlas is an electronic publication,
on-line access was provided to the public soon after project inception
(January 1996). Use of the DPA products was almost immediate and
has grown steadily over the last four plus years (Figure
3). This near real-time transfer of technology and information
to the client is one advantage clearly demonstrated by the DPA.

The pages that comprise the DPA make up the bulk of the web
site for the Petroleum Research Section (PRS) of the Kansas Geological
Survey. Usage statistics show that access to these pages has grown
to over 65,000 access "hits" per month (Figure
3). In measuring access "hits" on the PRS site,
all access to graphics is removed. This eliminates the multiple
counting of access hits that result from multiple figures (buttons,
bars, arrows, etc.) on a single web page. In addition, all access
from the Kansas Geological Survey subdomain (kgs.ku.edu) is
removed. This measurement protocol produces a consistent and conservative
measure of external usage. Current usage statistics are collected
daily and weekly and are available on the Petroleum Research Section
of the Kansas Geological Survey web site (http://www.kgs.ku.edu/usage/past_stats.html).

Each month a detailed usage report is generated for the oil
and gas portion of the Kansas Geological Survey web site. The
latest report for December 2000 (http://www.kgs.ku.edu/usage/2000/dec_wt/DEFAULT.HTM)
provides rough quantitative measures for the Digital Petroleum
Atlas. In April, the pages of the Digital Petroleum ranked higher
among the most requested pages (Figure
4). Other highly requested pages on the Petroleum Research
web server are portals that provide general access to the Digital
Petroleum Atlas and other oil and gas information. After the user
enters the Digital Petroleum Atlas Home Page or DPA-Kansas Page
they split off in any number of directions. The Digital Petroleum
Atlas Home Page was also the number 2 most popular entry page
and the number 3 most popular exit page. This is interpreted to
mean that the DPA is book marked and users jump directly to it.
The December statistics also show that the Petroleum Research
Web Site and the Digital Petroleum Atlas appealed primarily to
companies (.com domain with 58 % of total hits) and networks (.net
domain with 39%). The .net domain is interpreted as representing
the very small independent and consultant who uses a local or
national Internet access provider. Statistics for December 2000
measure the most accessed directories on the Petroleum Research
web server. The DPA is the most accessed directory with over 30
percent of the total hits for the site (Figure
5).

Other measures of the impact of the Kansas Digital Petroleum
Atlas are unsolicited comments and success stories received by
users. A selection of comments is provided in Appendix
A.